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Dog rescued from Murrayville well

Hall County Fire Services Lt. Nathan Crowe holds Suger Bear the dog Tuesday afternoon as he is hoisted from an estimated 35-foot abandoned well in Murrayville. From left, Sgt. Matt Carney, Capt. Zach Brackett, Sgt. Parker Camp, Battalion Chief Tyler Dorsey and Capt. Casey Ramsey lowered Crowe into the hole so he could grab the pooch, which may have been trapped in the well for weeks.

When Hall County Fire Services Lt. Nathan Crowe ascended on a rope pulley with a dog in his arms, Carolyn Smith said her “prayers were answered.”

“They saved my babies,” Smith said.

Smith’s two dogs Zoe and Sugar Bear were missing for roughly three weeks in the Murrayville area. Firefighters rescued Sugar Bear from an estimated 35-foot abandoned well Tuesday afternoon. Zoe had already been found in the woods shortly before that.

The dogs were with Carolyn Smith’s son as she and husband Jerry were in the process of moving to North Carolina.

“The plumber left the door open, and they shot out,” Smith said.

Smith’s “lifesaver” came in the form of Sheree Elliott, who put fliers all over town trying to help find the dogs.

“I got five or six different calls in the last three weeks saying they had spotted them,” Elliott said.

Smith and Elliott eventually found the dogs in a wooded area on Ben Parks Road near Wade Whelchel Road. Authorities from Hall County Fire Services pulled Sugar Bear out of the hole.

Hall County Fire Services Capt. Zachary Brackett said the fire department turned over the scene to code enforcement, which has worked to cover and mark the well.